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The Real World: New Orleans (2010)
The Real World: New Orleans is the twenty-fourth season of MTV's reality television series The Real World, which focuses on a group of diverse strangers living together for several months in a different city each season, as cameras follow their lives and interpersonal relationships. It is the third season of The Real World to be filmed in West South Central States region of the United States, specifically in Louisiana. The season featured eight people who lived in a house in Uptown New Orleans. It is the fourth season to take place in a city that had hosted a previous season, as the show's ninth season was set in New Orleans in 2000. New Orleans was first reported as the location for the 24th season in a December 2009 article on the website Vevmo.[ Pre-production began on December 2, 2009, and Production lasted from January to April 24, 2010. It premiered on Wednesday, June 30 of that year, and averaged nearly 2 million viewers for the season, a 25% increase from the previous season, and ranked as the #1 cable program for Wednesday night's 10pm–11pm time slot among viewers aged 12–34. The season premiere was watched by 1.26 million viewers. It consisted of 12 episodes. Assignment Most seasons of The Real World, beginning with the fifth season, have included the assignment of a season-long group job or task to the housemates. Continued participation in the assignment has been mandatory to remain part of the cast since the Back to New York season. This season, like the preceding season in Washington, DC, did not require roommates to take part in a group job. However, this season's cast was offered opportunities to volunteer together at various locations. Pre-production announcements by Bunim-Murray Productions indicated that the cast would participate in Hurricane Katrina recovery activities, with co-creator and executive producer Jon Murray stating in a news release, "Hurricane Katrina threw New Orleans for a punch, but the city is coming back and we're hoping our cast members and the series can play a small role in the city's rebirth." Nola.com viewed this announcement as an attempt by Bunim-Murray to reverse the series' reputation as a den of immature and irresponsible behavior on the part of its young cast members. The cast provides assistance to the homeless by working at the New Orleans Mission, and building homes with Habitat for Humanity. Residence The cast lived at a house at 1633-1635 Dufossat Street, in Uptown New Orleans. According to Sotheby's website, the 9,860-square-foot (916 m2) house, which is currently on the market for $1.7 million, features 7 bedrooms, 8 bathrooms, a landscaped front garden, a pool, historic mantels, and an additional apartment equipped with a full kitchen that can be used for an entertainment room or separate quarters for guests or live-in staff. The house, which is located 1.7 miles (2.7 km) from the Belfort Mansion used as the residence for the ninth season, was owned by Baron Davis of the Cleveland Cavaliers, who paid $1.5 million in 2002 for the property, which was featured on an episode of MTV Cribs. Because the cast was housed in a residential unit instead of a commercial building this season, it was not furnished by IKEA, as residences in recent past seasons. Police incident On March 1, 2010, New Orleans' 2nd District police were summoned to the house by cast member Ryan Leslie, who complained that his housemate, Preston Roberson-Charles, with whom he had an argument three weeks earlier, urinated on his toothbrush, and used it to scrub in the inside of a toilet bowl, causing a subsequent sore throat and fever that required Leslie to go to the hospital on February 21, where he was treated for a viral infection. According to Leslie, Roberson-Charles previously called Leslie a "faggot", and threatened to take some action against Leslie's belongings. Leslie learned that Roberson-Charles had soiled his toothbrush only after Leslie had been using it for two weeks. Police confiscated Leslie's toothbrush as evidence, but did not take a statement by Roberson-Charles. The police report did not indicate whether the police viewed video footage shot in the house while investigating the complaint. Executive producer Jim Johnston declined to comment. Officer Garry Flot, a New Orleans Police Department spokesman, opined that Leslie may have merely wanted the incident documented, as the police would have likely issued a municipal summons to both roommates in order for a judge to determine if a crime had been committed, had Leslie wanted to press charges. Flot further suggested that the incident may have been contrived to generate publicity for the series. Roberson-Charles' soiling of Leslie's toothbrush, as well as Leslie's soiling of Roberson-Charles' cigarettes by rubbing them on his anal cleft, were both depicted in Episode 4. The summoning of the police was depicted in Episode 6. Cast {| class="wikitable sortable jquery-tablesorter" !Cast Member !Age* !Hometown |- |'Ashlee Feldman' |23 |Boston, Massachusetts |- |'Eric Patrick' |22 |Arlington, Virginia |- |'Jemmye Carroll' |21 |Starkville, Mississippi |- |'McKenzie Coburn' |21 |Jupiter, Florida |- |'Preston O'Neil Roberson-Charles' |22 |Boston, Massachusetts |- |'Ryan Knight' |23 |Milwaukee, Wisconsin |- |'Ryan Leslie' |22 |Tempe, Arizona |- |'Sahar Dika' |21 |Dearborn Heights, Michigan |- *Age at the time of filming.